Adaptive event-triggered PID load frequency control for multi-area interconnected wind power systems under aperiodic DoS attacks

AIn this paper, impact of communication delay on distributed load frequency control (dis-LFC) of multi-area interconnected power system (MAIPS) is investigated. Load frequency control (LFC), as one of ancillary services, is aimed at maintaining system frequency and inter-area tie-line power close to the scheduled values, by load reference set-point manipulation and consideration of the system constraints. Centralized LFC (cen-LFC) requires inherent communication bandwidth limitations, stability and computational complexity, as such, it is not a good technique for the control of large-scale and geographically wide power systems. To decrease the system dimensionality and increase performance efficiency, distributed and decentralized control techniques are adopted. In distributed LFC (dis-LFC) of MAIPS, each control area (CA) is equipped with a local controller and are made to exchange their control actions by communication with controllers in the neighboring areas. The delay in this communication can affect the performance of the LFC scheme and in a worst case deteriorates power system stability. To investigate the impact of this delay, model predictive controller (MPC) is employed in the presence of constraints and external disturbances to serve as LFC tracking control. The scheme discretizes the system and solves an on-line optimization at each time sample. The system is subjected to communication delay between the CAs, and the response to the step load perturbation with and without the delay. Time-based simulations were used on a three-area MAIPS in MATLAB/SIMULINK environment to verify the investigations. The overshoot and settling time in the results reveals deterioration of the control performance with delay. Also, the dis-LFC led to zero steady states errors for frequency deviations and enhanced the MAIPS’ performance. With this achievement, MPC proved its constraints handling capability, online rolling optimization and ability to predict future behavior of systems.

The stability control of nominal frequency and terminal voltage in an interconnected power system (IPS) is always a challenging task for researchers. The load variation or any disturbance affects the active and reactive power demands, which badly influence the normal working of IPS. In order to maintain frequency and terminal voltage at rated values, controllers are installed at generating stations to keep these parameters within the prescribed limits by varying the active and reactive power demands. This is accomplished by load frequency control (LFC) and automatic voltage regulator (AVR) loops, which are coupled to each other. Due to the complexity of the combined AVR-LFC model, the simultaneous control of frequency and terminal voltage in an IPS requires an intelligent control strategy. The performance of IPS solely depends upon the working of the controllers. This work presents the exploration of control methodology based on a proportional integral–proportional derivative (PI-PD) controller with combined LFC-AVR in a multi-area IPS. The PI-PD controller was tuned with recently developed nature-inspired computation algorithms including the Archimedes optimization algorithm (AOA), learner performance-based behavior optimization (LPBO), and modified particle swarm optimization (MPSO). In the earlier part of this work, the proposed methodology was applied to a two-area IPS, and the output responses of LPBO-PI-PD, AOA-PI-PD, and MPSO-PI-PD control schemes were compared with an existing nonlinear threshold-accepting algorithm-based PID (NLTA-PID) controller. After achieving satisfactory results in the two-area IPS, the proposed scheme was examined in a three-area IPS with combined AVR and LFC. Finally, the reliability and efficacy of the proposed methodology was investigated on a three-area IPS with LFC-AVR with variations in the system parameters over a range of  ± 50%. The simulation results and a comprehensive comparison between the controllers clearly demonstrates that the proposed control schemes including LPBO-PI-PD, AOA-PI-PD, and MPSO-PI-PD are very reliable, and they can effectively stabilize the frequency and terminal voltage in a multi-area IPS with combined LFC and AVR.

Distributed model predictive load frequency control of multi-area interconnected power system

A Tilt Integral Derivative (TID) controller is designed in this paper for the Load Frequency Control (LFC) issue of a multi-area interconnected restructured power system. The suggested TID controller settings are fine-tuned using a novel optimization technique known as Hunger Games Search (HGS) algorithm. A multi-area interconnected power system with various generating units is used to test the performance of the proposed TID controller based on HGS. The suggested controller also takes into account system non-linearities such as Generation Rate Constraints (GRCs) and Governor Dead Band (GDB). The superiority of HGS's optimization over a range of other significant optimization techniques, such as the grey-wolf optimization algorithm, has been confirmed. The simulation results show that the proposed TID controller based on HGS improves system frequency stability significantly under a variety of load perturbation scenarios.

Higher Order Degree of Freedom Controller for Load Frequency Control of Multi Area Interconnected Power System with Time Delays

In this paper, Proportional Integral Derivative (PID) controller is designed using Differential Evolution (DE) algorithm to Load Frequency Control (LFC) in three areas of an interconnected power system. The proposed controller has appropriate dynamic response, so it increases damping in transient state in unhealthy conditions. Different generators have been used in three areas. Area 1 includes thermal non-reheat generator and two thermal reheat generators; area 2 includes hydro and thermal non-reheat generators, and area 3 includes hydro and thermal reheat generators. In order to evaluate the performance of the controller, Sim/Matlab software is used. Simulation results show that the controller designed using DE algorithm is not affected by load changes, disturbance, or system parameters changes. Comparing the results of proposed algorithm with other load frequency control algorithms, such as PSO and GA, it has been found that this method has a more appropriate response and satisfactory performance

This paper proposes a robust control strategy involving a novel optimised fuzzy-PID controller tuning by particle swarm optimisation (PSO) algorithm. The proposed control strategy was suggested to design an intelligent load frequency control (LFC) scheme in multi-area interconnected power system. The PSO algorithm was employed to optimise the fuzzy-PID controller parameters including the scaling factors of fuzzy logic and the PID controller gains for minimisation of both system frequency deviation and tie-line power changes during load disturbances using the integral time multiply absolute error (ITAE) as objective function. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed control strategy, the three-area 9-unit interconnected power system was used for the simulation. The superiority of the proposed approach was shown by comparing the obtained results to other strategies available in literature. Initially, the simulation was performed using the same controllers in each area, and then was extended with different controllers in each area. The comparative study demonstrates the potential of the proposed control strategy and shows its robustness to enhance frequency stability.

Self-tuning algorithm for automatic generation control in an interconnected power system

Information and communication technology tremendously facilitates the operation efficiency and economy of modern power systems in recent years. However, risks such as bandwidth constraints and malicious attacks threaten the secure load frequency control (LFC) of power systems. To mitigate such risks, this paper proposes distributed observer-based event-triggered LFC schemes for multi-area power systems under cyber attacks. Considering the practical situation that only local system output information may be available, distributed observer-based LFC schemes are designed. Meanwhile, to reduce the communication burden, an event-triggered mechanism is adopted to design control laws, where both static and dynamic event-triggered approaches are taken and the dynamic one is proved to be more economical in terms of control cost. Verifiable sufficient conditions are established to guarantee the stability of the closed-loop system in the presence of cyber attacks and the controller gains are explicitly derived. Finally, validation studies on a three-area interconnected power system are carried out to demonstrate the proposed control schemes. Note to Practitioners—Load frequency is a crucial index for evaluating the quality of electric energy and thus LFC has brought considerable attention in the area of power systems control. Although many achievements have been made on the LFC of multi-area power systems, the risks such as bandwidth constraints and malicious attacks affect the normal operation of LFC due to the interconnection between different power systems. To deal with these risks, this paper focuses on designing event-triggered LFC to guarantee the stability of the frequency deviation while reducing the communication burden and mitigating cyber attacks. More importantly, the proposed event-triggered LFC is designed based on an observer and can be implemented in a distributed manner, which is relatively practical in real applications. The results presented in this paper aim to provide a helpful reference for stable and secure LFC design of multi-area power systems, such that the corresponding application research can be promoted.

Electric vehicles (EVs) can be employed intelligently in Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) and Grid-to-Vehicle (G2V) modes for Load Frequency Control (LFC) in the power grid. Due to the rapid variation of charging or discharging power, EVs can perform frequency regulation tasks and serve as distributed energy storage devices. In this paper, a linearized model of an interconnected multi-area power system is formulated in the restructured environment to include Electric Vehicle Aggregators (EVA). The DISCO Participation Matrix (DPM) is used to model Poolco and bilateral contracts in restructured multi-area power systems along with the participation of EVs. The faster dynamic response of EVs can effectively control the deviations in area frequencies imposed by the DISCOs load demand. The gains of the integral controller employed in each area are tuned by Real Coded Genetic Algorithm (RGA) by minimizing the integral square error function for area frequency deviations. The efficacy of power support from the EVs for load frequency control is validated by simulating different Poolco and bilateral transactions. It is shown that the EVs have a significant impact on obtaining optimal transient response for area frequencies, tie-line powers and power generation of conventional thermal generating units for any type of transaction in a restructured environment.

BackgroundAutomatic generation control (AGC) of multi-area interconnected power system (IPS) is often designed with negligible cross-coupling between the load frequency control (LFC) and automatic voltage regulation (AVR) loops. This is because the AVR loop is considerably faster than that of LFC. However, with the introduction of slow optimal control action on the AVR, positive damping effect can be achieved on the LFC loop thereby improving the frequency control. In this paper, LFC synchronized with AVR in three-area IPS is proposed. Model predictive controller (MPC) configured in a dense distributed pattern, due to its online set-point tacking is used as the supplementary controller. The dynamics of the IPS subjected to multi-area step and random load disturbances are studied. The efficacy of the developed scheme is ascertained by simulating the disturbed system in MATLAB/Simulink.ResultsBased on the comparative analysis on the system responses, it is established that by cross-coupling the LFC loop with AVR, reductions of 66.45% and 59.09% in the frequency and tie-line power maximum deviations respectively are observed, while the respective settling times are found to be reduced by 29.68% and 22.77% when compared with the uncoordinated control scheme. In addition, the standard deviation and variance of the integral time absolute error of the system’s responses have reduced by 23.21% and 20.83% respectively compared to those obtained in a similar study.ConclusionsThe reduction in the maximum deviations and settling times in the system states indicates that introducing the voltage control via AVR loop has improved the frequency control significantly. While the lower standard deviation and variance of the integral time absolute error signify improvement in the robustness of the developed algorithm. However, this improvement is at the detriment of the controller size and computational complexity. In the uncoordinated control scheme, the control vector is one-dimensional, while in the coordinated scheme, the control vector is two-dimensional for each CA.

In this paper, the pumped storage hydropower (PSH) is introduced into the conventional power system to be constructed as a load frequency control (LFC) model for frequency management of the auxiliary power system. First, a multi-area LFC systems with PSH participation by considering time delay is delicately constructed. The PSH is modelled as an auxiliary frequency adjustment tool that can achieve energy conversion to balance the system. Second, an adaptive event-triggered mechanism (AETM) is suggested as a means to enhance data transmission efficiency. Then, the Lyapunov theory is utilized to establish adequate conditions that guarantee prescribed <tex xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">$H$</tex> ∞and exponential mean-square stability for multi-area power systems. Finally, several simulations are used to show that the suggested strategy works.

Maintaining frequency stability in modern multi-area interconnected power systems has become increasingly challenging due to the stochastic nature of wind power and reduced effective system inertia. Under these dynamic conditions, traditional fixed-gain PID controllers frequently fail to provide robust regulation. To address this limitation, this study proposes and evaluates a practical model-free secondary control strategy for multi-area Load Frequency Control (LFC). The proposed hybrid MFAC–PID framework integrates an incremental model-free adaptive control (MFAC) law with a low-gain incremental PID damping term. This combination leverages real-time input–output data to determine primary control actions without relying on an explicit plant model, while the PID component supplies supplementary damping based on recent control errors. Furthermore, the controller utilizes online pseudo-gradient estimation to dynamically adapt to stochastic wind fluctuations and ±5% parametric uncertainty. Simulation results demonstrate that the hybrid design substantially enhances Area Control Error (ACE) regulation. Under wind-disturbed conditions, it reduces the aggregated Integral Absolute Error (IAEtotal) from 92.76 to 41.10, representing an improvement of over 50% compared with the fixed-gain PID baseline. Additionally, the controller maintains a low computational overhead of 0.306 milliseconds per control cycle. These findings indicate that the hybrid MFAC–PID structure provides a robust, computationally efficient solution for real-time Automatic Generation Control (AGC) in renewable-integrated multi-area power grids.

A memory output sliding mode load frequency control (MOSMLFC) strategy is proposed for multi-area interconnected power systems under historical-frequency-triggered denial-of-service (DoS) attacks. Due to the use of the open network, the multi-area power system is prone to cyber-attacks. Different types of attack models have been built to describe the actual attack behavior, so that effective strategies can be quickly formulated in the event of an attack. Therefore, a historical-frequency-triggered DoS attacks model is presented from the perspective of attackers, with the aim of destroying the stable state of the multi-area power system. It is assumed that attackers determine the timing of DoS attacks by monitoring the operational status of multi-area power systems and designing the triggering condition with historical frequency. A MOSMLFC strategy is investigated to ensure the security performance of multi-area power systems under historical-frequency-triggered DoS attacks, which applies the memory output information of the power system to realize the controller design. The security condition of multi-area power systems under historical-frequency-triggered DoS attacks is obtained by Lyapunov’s theorem and linear matrix inequality (LMI). Numerical examples are tested over the IEEE 10-generator 39-bus system and the results prove the usefulness and superiority of the proposed method. Note to Practitioners—Load frequency control is widely applied in multi-area power systems to achieve a balance between the load demand and generation. Frequent cyber-attacks are a threat to the normal operation of the power system. It is therefore necessary to develop appropriate strategies to defend against cyber-attacks. So far, there have been many different forms of cyber-attacks. This has prompted defenders to build different types of attack models to describe the actual attack behavior in order to preemptively formulate appropriate defensive strategies. Smart attacker may notice that certain characteristics of the target system are important, such as the power system frequency. This motivates us to propose a historical frequency-triggered DoS attack model that contributes to a deep understanding of the impact of cyber-attacks on the power system. We propose a unique sliding mode control approach to ensure the stable performance of power system state and output simultaneously.

A distributed model predictive control based load frequency control scheme for multi-area interconnected power system using discrete-time Laguerre functions